Your relationship with your body and with food plays a major part in the context of self-love. It is only natural that during the summer season, we become more self-conscious about our bodies and what we eat as society makes us feel like we are not good enough. This is why some people turn to dieting to get to where they think they need to be.
Some even turn towards a plant-based diet for that – but plant-based doesn’t necessarily guarantee weight loss. Instead, there are so many other benefits to plant-based and intuitive eating, but when working with us, weight loss is never the focus. Rather, we like to help you improve your relationship with food and therefore yourself. Here’s why we do what we do and how you can free yourself from diet culture along the way.
Summer is always a stressful time for many people. This time of year, we are always bombarded with the sexiest new diets and the pressure to look a certain way in a bathing suit. Both are recipes for an absolutely miserable spring and an even worse summer.
This is why we wanted to spread a different message this year. How would it feel to look at yourself in the mirror and not say something negative? Or how would it feel to implement some new eating habits that were based on abundance and positivity instead of restriction and shame? What if you looked diet culture in the face and said “Not this year!”?
It would feel AMAZING!
Let’s start with the most important message: every body is a beautifully unique body and this is something that we talk a lot about at Plant Centered Nutrition. It is so important because diet culture and weight loss companies are sending us different signals. “Six weeks to lose 10 pounds” or “4 weeks to the perfect beach body” are only a fraction of advertising out there, that, inherently, is likely going to make you feel bad about your body.
The messages that we want to send, on the other hand, are all year round. They’re about getting in touch with your own body. This is not a temporary quick fix, rather it’s a lifestyle change and something that we feel really passionate about. We do this because we care about you and not just because we’re trying to get this temporary result between now and your beach vacation.
We want to establish permanent habit changes that you feel good about and are going to last you a lifetime. We want to provide a safe space for you to feel empowered and excited. We focus on lifelong changes, not quick fixes. You only have one life. Why waste it fighting your body and seeing food as the enemy?
When people go plant-based or vegan for all kinds of reasons, weight loss can come up. But does going plant-based mean you’re automatically going to lose weight? The short answer is no.
It’s important to note that weight is not an indicator of health, either. We even avoid words such as healthy or unhealthy, good or bad, because health is really tied to you, the person, and what you believe is healthy for you. That definition looks different for every body. Health has so many different facets and it’s irresponsible to equate weight loss and health or plant-based eating and weight loss.
We have to remember that plant-based eating is not a fad diet. It shouldn’t be used to sell weight loss. It can have a lot of great health benefits and weight loss may be a side effect, but also weight gain is possible. It all depends on numerous factors like where you are on your personal journey, what sleep and stress management look like, or how you eat now that you’re plant-based.
What if your digestion improved and you felt more energized, but your weight stayed the same? Or what if your cholesterol improves and your weight stays the same? Isn’t that great proof that your health is benefiting from this way of eating? It all comes back to what your definition of health is outside of weight loss.
All these expectations and thoughts just show how ingrained diet culture is in our brains and why it is so hard to get away from it. Untangling yourself from diet culture takes years of work, especially if you’ve been heavily brought up in it.
It will take a while to unravel yourself from it, but it is so worth it. You’ll have to constantly put in the work to make sure you don’t get tangled back up in it because it’s everywhere. And if you’re struggling with that, there are lots of things that you can do: therapy, working with a professional, affirmations, going through an intuitive eating workbook – just to name a few. And there is no shame in seeking out help, either! But the work that you’re putting in is going to pave the way for lifelong changes that are going to help you feel better and achieve your goals.
The problem is that weight loss or even weight, in general, distracts you from what is truly important in life. If your goal is to lose weight, that’s fine. But, your health, your relationship with food and your relationship with yourself matter so much more than a number on a scale or a tag size in your jeans. And it can be really hard to get out of that mindset – we know that first hand.
If you’re not ready to work with someone yet, challenge your thoughts that come up about health and weight loss. This is a great book to get you started.
Here at Plant Centered Nutrition, our primary goal is to make sure that you’re eating plant-based in a way that feels aligned for you. But we also want to help you heal your relationship with food. Good quality sleep, stress management and other factors of well-being are equally important and bring value and joy into your life, and with time, weight loss becomes less important.
It can be challenging to look at someone else and not jump to a conclusion on whether or not that person’s healthy or happy. There are so many other factors that are involved in terms of understanding someone’s physical condition, like access to food, health care, care in general, stress as well as finances.
You never know what is going on in somebody else’s life. And I would assume you don’t want to be judged solely based on your appearance, right?
Our differences are worth celebrating! We don’t have to all be the same. In fact, what a boring world it would be if we were. Embrace embarking on a new journey this summer. A journey of self-love and appreciation. Because you have to start somewhere and starting is always the hardest part.
Once you’re there, you get to enjoy the journey of learning and working to improve your relationship with food and yourself. When you look in the mirror and when you go to work and when you’re on vacation, know that you’re doing something different. Your goal isn’t to follow a restrictive diet and fight against your body. Your goal is to focus on how you feel and identify your own definition of health, not diet culture’s definition. And don’t let anyone tell you any different. Because you are worth it.
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